Live blog: TFL failed to make checks on Quietway routes, says Active Travel Now Campaign, seriously muddy bike testing, new summer kit launches and much more
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Wed, Mar 28, 2018 07:53
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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Latest Comments
Astralstroll 1 hour ago
So ' Priority of Road Users' and 1.5 metre clearance at 30mph has been been reduced to 'sharing'? NCN route 2 here in South Hams is an absolute scream with white vans, tractors and total idiots who refuse,or are totally incapable,to reverse on high Devon banked lanes ...means you have to get off and pedal back to a passing place....could be at that all day...so I don't bother...
Mr Anderson 3 hours ago
@MaxiMinimalist Agreed. The big problem I see now is today's parents grew up being driven to their schools, and therefore, see private motor vehicles as the only viable form of transport. The vast majority of UK infant and primary schools have a catchment area that is within easy walking distance from home to school. Yet, the traffic caused by pupils being driven to/from school is astonishing. Banishing the "School Run" should be a priority for all schools.
MaxiMinimalist 3 hours ago
When I was a kid (that was during the previous millenium when phones were connected to a plug in the wall), I rode my bicycle to school, music academy, sport grounds, parties even during the winter. The government didn't have to spend, correct that, didn't have to think of spending massive amounts of money to build cycling specific infrastructures. Over the past 3 or 4 decades, cars have grown bigger, taller, safer (for their drivers) and faster. Meanwhile, motorists have become abusive, aggressive, hypersensitive to people moving on two wheels, aka cyclists. Spending billions upon billions on new infrastructure won't address the crux of the matter. Sadly.
Paul J 3 hours ago
Obree had some actual talent in his legs though, in addition to his bike/aero engineering talent.
Maruis Kalchev 3 hours ago
Малко като опит за доказване е излязло... Никой няма нужда от толкова голям въртящ момент и мощност на шосеен велосипед с тънки гуми, които дори трудно ще предават тази мощност върху пътя. А ако има и ограничение от 25 км/час е още по-безмислено.
mdavidford 4 hours ago
Not sure how informative that is. I imagine for all most of us know it could be Europe's only 'volumetric modular building'. 🤷♂️
chrisonabike 4 hours ago
Yes, but they're copying the adults of today...
chrisonabike 4 hours ago
Indeed - but alas I think this is an effective argument for very few folks indeed. As for push-back, what else could we expect *? I think there are ways of selling this but we're far more likely to see headlines about the problems, while the successes are relegated to footnotes, because at that point it just works and there's nothing to see... * Given that this time there aren't politicians being persuaded to overlook thousands of deaths and the demolition of property by the billions from the motoring trades (and the excitement of being able to drive out with the bright things for a party at a roadhouse). Nor are we as tolerant of "accidents". (And noting that publicity about the cases of a handful of people killed by cyclists continues to reach the media; deaths related to motor vehicles not so much).
mdavidford 4 hours ago
That rather ignores that the children of today are the adults of tomorrow.
fwhite181 4 hours ago
@belugabob Arguably it's easier this way - we don't actually need to do anything to the streets except stop drivers driving down every scrap of tarmac. Where I live, a few well-placed bollards would make walking/cycling/scooting the quicker option and safer, while maintaining 100% vehicular access - just not allowing through routes in every direction.
10 thoughts on “Live blog: TFL failed to make checks on Quietway routes, says Active Travel Now Campaign, seriously muddy bike testing, new summer kit launches and much more”
I’m feeling Dave and that mud
I’m feeling Dave and that mud.. Saturday was my trial by mudbath, which went a bit like this…. slide, cor this is tough, slide, slide, brambles, rocks, slide, off, over the handlebars, slide, walk, lost, off, slide.. the relif I felt when nearing the coffee shop was epic.. jeeze can’t think I’ve done a harder sixteeen miles.
Need a bit more info on the
Need a bit more info on the traffic order. Where exactly is this?
Do they mean here ? https://goo.gl/maps/MDM2UThATgP2
hirsute wrote:
It’s absurd if that’s what TfL really is going to do. Why build a cycle lane if you can’t get into one end of it?
OldRidgeback wrote:
google maps research shows the cyle lane on the river side of the road on embankment, so from the north you have eastbound road, westbound road, eastbound cycleway, westbound cycleway.
on bridge street you have (starting on the east side) southbound road, northbound road, southbound cycleway, northbound cycleway. Both north and south cycleways show turns heading for the embankment.
It is not clear, are they banning cyclist in the cycle lanes from turning left (crossing both directions of traffic going on and off the bridge) or are they banning cyclists from starting on the road (southbound bridge street) then moving onto the cycleway just before going onto the bridge. I can’t see any reason for doing this unless it relates to phasing of pedestrian lights crossing cycle superhighway.
more detail definately required.
hirsute wrote:
Just a tiny bit further on from that, into the cycle path which runs parallel just to the south of the road.
https://goo.gl/maps/RcZPmxcsf5w
I assume they are stopping left turns from the road into the cycle path, but allowing them from cycle path to cycle path, so anyone who wants to use the Embankment cycle path also has to use the one in front of parliament.
I haven’t cycled in the area myself, but I assume that currently many people choose not to use the cycle path in front of parliament – from the quoted tweet I guess that people do so because of some issues around Parliament square, though I’m not sure what those are.
The problem with the Victoria
The problem with the Victoria Embankment junction is that it’s so much quicker to cycle on the road approaching from Parliament Square than it is to follow the cycle lanes. If you’re coming from the west up Great George Street, you’ll have three sets of cycle lane lights to wait for before you’ll get to the Victoria Embankment cycle super highway rather than the two on the road which also have a much longer sequence. However, when making that left turn on to Victoria Embankment, the pedestratian crossing is green for pedestratians. I haven’t seen any collisions myself, but I have seen near misses.
Source: I commute to work via this route.
The cycle lanes around Parliament Square suffer from short light sequences and lengthy queues during rush hour. You also have traffic from Westminster Bridge that can block the ability to cross, and it’s often a tourist free-for-all, especially during the summer. The road up to Westminster Bridge is two lanes, but in the morning, the leftmost lane is often blocked by deliver vehicles (especially Tesco vehicles) which leads to horrible convergence if you are trying to go fromt he road to cycle super highway. It’s deffinitely better than not having the infrastructure, but it’s not without its problems.
Luke Z wrote:
As any true petrolhead would say.
I’ve just started commuting
I’ve just started commuting via the parliment square route, and after two days of using the cycle lane, I gave up and tried the road. This morning, the road route took seconds, previous to that, it seemed to take 10 minutes to cross the square using the cycle route. The lights clearly favour the road traffic. I’m a confident enough cyclist that I feel comfortable doing this. As long as you look for pedestrians when you turn onto embankment, it’s fine.
The problem is, the road-route gets a green light at the same time as the pedestrians, which is why they are talking about a ban. Salt common sense doesn’t seem to come into it.
Shane Perkins staying classy,
Shane Perkins staying classy, sold your soul out yah grub!
Mesh, Endura? Didn’t work out
Mesh, Endura? Didn’t work out for Froome.
Australian muppet sells out to Putin. Becomes nonentity.